The novelist Amos Oz has been exploring the complexities of the Israeli experience in a career that stretches back more than 50 years. His latest novel, Judas, examines betrayal and belief in a multi-layered story that moves between Christianity’s early days and 1950s Jerusalem.

When he came to discuss the novel in front of a Guardian Live audience, Oz explained how he started reading the gospels as a teenager and his rage at the inconsistencies at the heart of the Judas story. The wide-ranging discussion included the dangerous appeal of fanaticism, the contested line between reasonable criticism of Israel and antisemitism and his hopes for peace.

Reading list

Judas by Amos Oz and translated by Nicholas De Lange (Chatto and Windus)